Rules of the game

Start of Hand: The player who starts the game plays a card on the table. The other players, in clockwise order, must play a card of their choice.
Taking Cards: Whoever plays the highest card of the trump suit (if any) takes all the cards played. If there are no cards of the trump suit, the winner is the one who played the highest card of the initial suit played in that hand.
Draw: After a hand has been won, the winning player takes a card from the deck, then everyone else draws until they have 3 cards in their hand again. On the last round of drawing, the last player takes the card that was turned over at the beginning to determine the Briscola suit.
Continue Playing: The winner of the previous hand starts the next hand. Play continues until all cards are played.
Scoring: At the end of the game, each player or team adds up the points of the cards taken. If playing in pairs, the points are shared between the team members.

End of the game

The game ends when all the cards have been played. The player (or team) who has accumulated the most points wins. The goal is to reach or exceed 61 points, since the total points in the deck are 120.

It is not mandatory to respond with the same suit. Unlike other games, in Briscola you are not obliged to play the same suit as the first card played.
Trump: Cards of the trump suit are particularly powerful. Even a low-ranking trump card can beat higher-ranking cards of other suits.

Special Rules

In the 4-player version, the game is played in pairs, with the players sitting opposite each other forming a team. The dynamics of the game remain the same, but the points of the tricks are added between the members of the team.

4-player variant

Strategic advice

Try to remember the cards already played, especially the trump cards, to predict what your opponents may play.
Play low-value cards if you think you can't win the hand, so as not to "waste" important cards.
Use trumps strategically to win crucial hands.

Briscola is a game of cunning and memory, which requires not only luck, but also a good dose of strategy!

Everything you need to start making pasta at home

Objective of the game

The goal is to accumulate as many points as possible by taking the highest value cards during the hands. The cards of each suit have different values.

The deck

An Italian deck of 40 cards is used, divided into 4 suits:

Ears of Corn/Deniers (Gold)
Goblets/Cups
Knives/Swords
Rolling Pins/Sticks

Value of cards

Ace: 11 points
Three: 10 points
Grandpa Chef (or 10): 4 points
Grandma Chef (or 9): 3 points
Waiter (or 8): 2 points
Other cards: 0 points

In total, there are 120 points in the deck.

Distribution of cards

Each player receives 3 cards
The next card from the deck is revealed and placed in the center of the table, under the remaining deck: this card determines the Briscola suit.
The remaining cards will be drawn one at a time at the end of each hand.

Briscola

Briscola is one of the most popular card games in Italy, played with a deck of 40 Italian cards, which can be Neapolitan, Sicilian, Piacenza or ... by Nonna Cooking, divided into the suits of cups, coins, swords and clubs.

It can be played by 2, 3, 4 or 6 players, but the most common version is for 2 or 4 players.